Dental plugger



N0. 6||,53|. Patented Sept. 27, 1898.

J. W. TENNY & B. T. McCRACKEN. DENTAL PLUGGER.

(Application filed Dec. 4, 1897) (No Model.)

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. A TTOHNEKS llni'rnn STATES JOHN W. TENNY AND RALPH T. MOORAOKEN, OF NElV ORLEANS, LOUISIANA.

DENTAL PLUGGER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 61 1,531, dated September 27, 1898.

A li ati fil d December 4, 1897. Serial No. 660,806- (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that we, JOHN W. TENNY and RALPH T. MCCRACKEN, citizens of the United States, residing at New Orleans, in the parish dental mallets by which taps or blows are given in rapid succession; and the object of our invention is to provide a device that Will deliver a greater or less number of blows in a given time and of any required degree of force, all under control of the operator. WVe also provide a means of delivering a blow in a direction away from the operator as well as toward him. lVe attain these objects by the mechanism illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which like numbers refer to like parts throughout the several views.

Figure 1 represents a longitudinal sectional view of our device. Fig. 2 is a detail sectional view taken on the line 13 in Fig. 1 looking to the left. Fig. 3 is a view similar to Fig. 2, but showing the shaft 10 and disk 9 as having been rotated through an angle of forty-five degreesfrom the position shown in Fig. 2 5 and Fig. 1 represents a transverse section taken on the line 17 in Fig.1 and looking down.

In Fig. 1, 3 represents a hollow preferably tapering case or cylinder having a cylindrical recess 11 in its larger end and screw-threaded interiorly at the mouth of said recess. A plug 16, cylindrical in form, having a central axial opening therethrough, is provided with a reduced screw-threaded end 16, which engages in the screw-threaded mouth of said recess 11. The opposite end 16 of said plug may also be reduced and screw-threaded for the attachment of a ring or collar. (Not shown.) The opening through the plug 16 is preferably smaller than the opening through the sleeve 3, as shown. Within the opening through the said sleeve 3 loosely fits a shaft or plunger 1, upon the inner end of which plunger is rigidly fixed a yoke 6, the vertical arms 6 of which fit into grooves 11 in opposite sides of the recess 11, which latter is deep enough to allow some little longitudinal movement to the shaft or plunger 1, as will hereinafter appear. The said grooves serve as guideways for the said yoke to prevent rotary movement of the said yoke and plunger.

The yoke 6 has a pair of inwardly-extending horizontal arms 8,the upper sides of which are rounded, as seen most clearly at 8 in Figs. 2 and 3. The upper horizontal arms 7 of the yoke are similarly rounded upon their under sides, as seen at 7* in Figs. 2 and 3.

A shaft 10 passes through the opening of the plug 16, and upon its upper end is fixed a disk 9, adapted to rotate within the yoke 6. The said disk is considerably thinner than the space between the horizontal arms 7 and 8 of the said yoke and has one or more rounded lugs 12 extending from and above its upper face and a corresponding number of similar lugs 12 extending-from and below its under face, as shown. 12 are intended to strike against the rounded sides 7 or S upon the horizontal arms 7 and 8, respectively, of the yoke during the operation of the device, as will hereinafter more fully appear,

A collar or boss 9, beneath the disk 9, separates the said disk continually a sufficient distance from the plug 16, and a pair of jamnuts 14 and 1 1, engaging a screw-threaded portion of the shaft 10, serve to confine the said shaft against longitudinal movement. The said nuts may be provided with openings 15 and 15, respectively, for the insertion of a suitable instrument in turning said nuts.

A small lever-arm 4. is fulcrumed at 4: upon the cylinder or case 3 near its smaller end, so as to be within easy reach of the thumb or fingers of the operator, and carries at one end a pin 5, which extends through an opening in said cylinder or case and is adapted to engage in a recess 1 in the plunger 1, as seen in Fig. 1. The said pin 5 is held normally in engagement with said recess 1 by means of a spring 4 acting upon the lever-arm 4; but a simple pressure will release the said pin from the said recess, as will be obvious.

The upper or outer end of the plunger 1, which protrudes but slightly from the smaller These rounded lugs 12 and end of the cylinder or case 8, is provided with a screw-threaded socket 2 for the insertion of a dental plugger.

The operation of the device is as follows: If the location of the filling-to be operated upon is in such position that a forward motion may be given the plugger, the appropriate plugger having been inserted into the socket in the end of the plunger 1, the operator takes the instrument in his hand and releasing the pin 5 by bearing upon the leverarm 4 he presses the tip of the plugger upon the filling. This pressure pushes the plunger 1 and the yoke 6 inward and holds the latter in such a position that the rounded lugs 12 on the disk 9 will strike the rounded under sides 7 of the horizontal arms 7 of said yoke as the said disk rotates. Rotary motion now being imparted to the shaft 10 and disk 9 by the operator in any well-known way the said lugs 12, striking successively against the horizontal arms 7, give to the plunger 1 and the plugger carried thereby a succession of short quick thrusts,which are communicated to the filling in the nature of direct taps thereon, as will be readily understood. In a case Where the filling to be operated upon is in such a posi tion thata forward movement of the plunger Will not suffice a curved or hooked plugger would be used, and in using such a plugger the operation Would be similar, except that the operator applies the pressure of the said plugger to the filling by a pull on the instrument. Such a pull draws the plunger 1 outward and brings the horizontal arms 8 on the We claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is-

In a dental mallet, the combination with a rotary shaft, and a disk fixed thereon and having rounded lugs upon its opposite faces; of a plunger; a yoke fixed upon said plunger and adapted to inclose said disk, the said yoke having a pair of straight horizontal arms upon either side of said disk, provided with rounded faces adjacent said disk; the said lugs on either side of said disk being adapted to strike the rounded faces of the corresponding arms of said yoke and impart a thrust to said plunger corresponding in direction to the direction of the blow of said lugs, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof We affix our signatures in presence of two witnesses.

J NO. W. TENNY. RALPH T. MOORAOKEN. Witnesses:

R. A. TICHENOR, HARRY S. GIDURE. 

